“I just grabbed a couple of tickets and gave them to my fiancé to scratch,” he said.

Scratching the tickets at home later that evening, she thought they had won $500.

The couple took the ticket back to the retailer to cash it in, surprised to hear that the store was not able to do so. As luck would have it, the reason spelled an even bigger win for Volk. The ticket was actually a $5,000 winner, and he would need to redeem it at a Lottery office.

“I had miscounted the words,” he said, referring to the game’s objective of revealing as many words as possible within the puzzle. “That’s when I really freaked out.”

True to his occupation as a financial advisor, Volk’s plans for his winnings are to “save it for a rainy day.”

Remaining prizes for “Crossword” total more than $7 million. The $3 Scratchers game, which officially began July 18, offers a top prize of $50,000.